A BUSINESS pressure group has accused Manchester City Council of being "greed driven" after it announced another hike in parking charges.

Parking on city-centre streets is set to go up by 10 per cent in the autumn, with some meters charging £2.20 an hour - a rise of 20p.

The latest rise means that the cost of metered parking has almost doubled in three years, rising from £1.20 in 2003 to the proposed £2.20 fee.

The Knutsford-based Forum of Private Business said the announcement is a clear indication that the council "cannot resist the temptation to swell the coffers with even more parking revenue".

Len Collinson, national chairman of the FPB, said the hike is "desperately short sighted" at a time when retail sales on the high street have fallen to their worst levels in a decade.

He said: "Manchester city council already doles out the third highest number of parking tickets of any authority outside London, raising £1.5m a year.

"The cost to city centre small businesses will be severe. All this increase will do is give people more reason to stay away from the town centre.

"We call on the council to wake up to economic reality and scrap this hike, Small firms in Manchester are competing against the might of the Trafford Centre where parking is free and easy."

UK Councils raised more than £1bn in parking charges last year, but Manchester city council has defended the 20p increase as "modest" and claims that it brings the cost of inner-city parking broadly in line with other European cities.

Coun Neil Swannicksaid: "The price of parking in the city centre remains reasonable. This modest increase will allow us to manage traffic effectively and continue our investment in the vibrant city centre."